Sunday, August 31, 2003

This month's Creative Review magazine (the one with the snake cover) includes designer Malcolm Garrett interviewing the 'single person or team he admires most in the creative industry'. Yes, you guessed it, it's Jonathan Ive. How Apple let this interview happen is beyond me, I mean Garrett is a complete apple FAN and when a fan meets his hero, anything could happen. He's been using then for twenty years and the questions he asked were so nerdy (well done!) He started babbling on about Apple dropping handhelds, OS X looking like something from Disney, how confusing his MiniDisk player was, Newtons (again) and what Steve Jobs was like to work with. It wasn't the open 'designer to designer' chat he was hoping for. Ive gave away no clues to future of Apple (as always), the Apple PR person with them made sure they stuck to the confidentiality aggrement.
Apple should have stuck with Newton. It was a pre-Palm, huge brick of a PDA that didn't really recognise anyone's handwriting. It was first on the market and Apple dropped it way before handhelds took off big time. (You can still find them in The Computer Exchange on good ole' Tottenham Court Road.)
Garrett is right about the look of X, but this should be customiseable when they finally get round to X desktop themes. My God! He should see how childish AOL for X looks!

Another mag to look out for is iCreate. It's only on the second issue but it full of cool Mac Porn and has many useful guides to all of the iApps. The free CD includes iPod Viewer - a utility that enables you to copy tracks from an iPod. Sorry, I mean use the tracks on your iPod as a backup ;-)

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

There's a new Apple Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard on the way! Here's the proof...
Apple Wireless Mouse and Wireless Keyboard Confirmation: "Mouse and Bluetooth Keyboard functionality.
Ooops... I guess this lets the cat out of the bag." The screenshots are from the developer release of the forthcoming Panther (Mac OS X 10.3).
Also, zdr has posted his artist's impression of the new mouse on SpyMac. He reckons he saw a leaked picture of it somewhere. Could it be a hoax? Maybe.

Steve Jobs is to present the keynote at Paris Expo!This can only mean that he will announce something major. An iTunes Music Store for Europe, perhaps?
OH PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Pretty please?)

Over a fifth (22 per cent) of .Mac users polled by Macworld Online plan to let their subscription lapse because the service is “too expensive, while another 21 per cent of subscribers are “undecided” about whether to renew.
However, 57 per cent of the .Mac subscribers say .Mac is “worth the cash”, and intend to renew. Some feel that they "can't live without it".One reader plans to renew because he’s sure Apple will continue to expand the service "in order to keep us interested".
iSync facilities and retrievable bookmarks are big winners with many readers: "It's as if my Mac goes everywhere with me, even when I'm using Windows," said one.
The benefits of webmail are also highlighted. One reader believes Webmail compares favourably to other Internet mail services: "I freelance from many different locations, so Webmail is perfect – much better than Hotmail."But for others, Apple is offering little not offered by other ISPs – aside from iSync. One points out that his ISP offers plenty of Web space, as well as his own domain name. He says: "Apple would need to offer full hosting services and better Windows compatibility to get me to spend $99."
Of the 941 readers polled, 61 per cent currently subscribe to .Mac while 38 per cent do not. The slow roll-out of broadband is cited as being a key reason by many who have yet to subscribe: "It's fine if you live in London, not so great if ADSL hasn’t reached you yet," said one respondee.
Many readers admitted to being initially unimpressed by .Mac, only to be later won over.
A number of readers suggest that additional services could be offered by .Mac to encourage more subscribers. One such suggestion is iChat facilitating free international phone calls for .Mac users, and Apple offering downloadable versions of OS X upgrades at a 30 per cent discount for .Mac members."

Monday, August 18, 2003

The G5s are here!...And they've got Mac OS X 10.2.7!!
I must get down to Tottenham Court Road, to drool all over the pavement outside Micro Anvika. Well, it is the fastest PC ever built in the history of ManKind, the World, the Universe...
...well, perhaps not.

Sunday, August 17, 2003

Why those pesky Windows people! They've only gone and launched a Europe-wide PAYG music download service way before Apple. Looks like they had the most negotiating muscle when it came to the publishing deals. Even though this service isn't available for us Mac users, it does look bad for those developing iTunes for Windows. Get home early if I were you, guys. Take a cruise.
Good news for us Brit Mac Heads - I read in the Sunday Times today that the European version of The iTunes Music Store will be lauched before Christmas.
So, may I take this opportunity to apologise to my family and friends who were expecting a Christmas gift from me this year - You probably won't be getting one, I'd have spend all the Christmas Club savings on music downloads (but they will be of the highest AAC encoded quality, I can assure you). I could burn them onto a CD for you all, but that would be illegal. Sorry.

Can the Sun please stop printing articles about iPod owning celebrities (and iPod-less celebs). Stop describing this thing of beauty as being as small as a 'cig packet', and please don't mention the iPod in the same sentence as Posh . It will seriously tarnish Apple's brand qualities, surely? It's bad enough seeing all those hapless Windows users with iPods, let alone the Beckhams.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Software Update!Quick! There's a Security Update to download. 2003-08-14 'addresses a potential vunerability in the fb_realpath() function (really?!) Which could allow a local or remote user to gain unauthorised root privaleges to a system.'
It's only 1.1MB, so you had best download it now. What with that worm crawling around.

Just received a text from my mate Neill (another mac user - we both went to the Mac OS X launch at Micro Anvika all those years ago). He's just bought a Bluetooth adaptor for his G4 and has found out that you can text and talk to people on your bluetooth mobile through your Mac. This is a real thumb saver as you type out text messages on your keyboard. Incoming messages appear on your screen.
Not even I knew that. Well done Neill!

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Have you registered for Mac Expo 2003yet? Why the hell not?! The first 5000 attendees get in for free. The expo is on from 20th to 22nd of November and is (again) at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The nearest tube is Angel (alot easier to get to than Olympia).
I'll be present, scouting for freebie t-shirts and competition entry forms. This year I'll be taking my PowerBook along, just so I can connect to the wireless hotspots. I may even post photos live from the event (if you're lucky).
They'll be some great bargains to be snapped up. Last year I bought Jaguar for my brother, minus the VAT.
Here's a word of advice. If any stalls are raffling prizes, enter them for a sure win. Most people forget to go back to the stall when they draw the entries. Last year there was about a dozen of us at the MacAlly raffle draw. They drew entries until they found a winner for each prize. Everyone went home happy! I won an AirStick. See you there!

Friday, August 08, 2003

The Cube is still alive. It was probably the coolest Mac ever built, which is why many Apple Cube owners will go to great lengths to keep theirs running up-to-date. Some have even built water cooling systems to prevent their perspex beauties from melting. Have a look at the pictures in this Wired report.

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

MacWorld UK's website features an online-only, exclusive interview with fellow mac bore and comic genius, Stephen Fry. He tells of his Mac collection (he's got more than me!) and the first Mac he bought (the third mac ever sold in Europe). Of course he waxes lyrical about the things Steve Jobs and Jonothan Ive have done.

Being employed in the advertising industry, I had the pleasure of attending the Design & Art Direction awards last year. Fry was the compere, and when the iPod was awarded a rare gold for Best Product Design, who should step up to receive the pencil? No other than Ive and the man Jobs himself! (wearing a very unfashionable cardie, mind you). Fry was wetting himself with excitement. I was wetting myself with excitement. It was as if Elvis had entered the building. Not that anyone else felt that way, though. Those on my table didn't even know who he was. "But he invented the personal computer, for shit's sake!" I cried. As soon as the ceremony was over I went into obsessive fan/stalker mode and tried to find the Mac God for a closer look. But I forced myself to return to my seat before I made a fool of myself.
That night I went home a happy man, the one thing that clearly deserved a 'pencil' above any frivolous advert, corporate brochure or shop interior, the one thing that could change the lives of millions had taken the gold. That night I also made a pact with myself. I would do everything within my power to upgrade my ageing first revision iBook SE to something with firewire, just so I had no excuse not to buy myself a palm-sized, white and chrome object d'art.

Monday, August 04, 2003

I managed to get hold of a copy of the Guardian's G2 supplement from two weeks ago. Y'know, the one where the whole thing was written and published on Brighton beach using iBooks, Powerbooks and the Pier to Pier network (geddit?). It was an interesting read (you can read it here). One of the article's photo shows a ker-ray-zee guy standing in the surf, holding his iBook above his head. Why? The Guardian's IT department must have seriously reprimanded him for such foolish behaviour.
The lefty journos spent the whole day looking for shade, fleeing 'undesireables' and wiggling their laptops in the air like TV aerials (to get a decent connection). It's a wonder they had time to do any writing.
Escaping the desk and setting up office on the shingle may sound nice in theory, but in practical terms it's far from it. Getting (at least) a grand's worth of harware out in public is OK if you're in a hotel lobby or a Starbucks is OK, but I wouldn't feel safe sitting in such a public place as a beach. From my experience of wireless broadband I've found that the hotter the weather the worse the connection. In winter I have no problem sneakily connecting to my neighbours WLAN. In summer it's impossible. Something to do fast moving air molecules, I guess. If only the Guardian had asked me first...
Also, in the same edition of G2, a photo shows 'squeaky rottweiler' Julie Burchill using what looks like a Lime Green clamshell iBook (with additional sticker collection). Rock 'n' Roll!

Griffin's iTrip has been outlawed in the UK. Which is a bit of a shame really, as it is a device that plugs into the top of your iPod, enabling you to tune a nearby radio into it. Seems that the authorities think that we'll all be pirating the kHz of existing radio stations, thus forcing those nearby to listen to our particular tastes in music. Blame the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949.
That's just another cool thing that us Brits won't be getting (along with the revolutionary Apple Music Store and the printing service of iPhoto. Anyone off to the States?

The other day I remembered to download an app called Salling Clicker. You must download this if you have a Sony Ericsson phone. It is quite amazing. It enables you to use your mobile as a remote for iTunes, DVD Player, Keynote and many others. It also won a few awards too.